Sayoko Blodgett-Ford, a Member of GTC, taught a new course “Mobile App Development: Legal Contributions” at Boston College Law School in the Spring 2017 semester as an adjunct professor. The focus of this experiential course was on the role the attorney can play in the development and launch of mobile applications, including key skills needed for communications with executives and various stakeholders. Legal issues and strategies to be covered include: obtaining necessary third-party licenses and considering “work around” options when such licenses are not available or are cost-prohibitive, compliance with applicable laws and regulations, deal structure and key terms for contracting with outside developers, and intellectual property protection strategies – offense/enforcement and defense/clearance.
Sayoko’s practice focuses on intellectual property strategy and transactions and data privacy and security law, as well as technology M&A transactions. Sayoko was a Lecturer in Law at the University of Hawai’i law school until Spring 2016, where she has taught Internet Law & Policy, Intellectual Property, Contracts Drafting, High-Growth Entrepreneurship and Administrative Law, among other subjects. She previously served as general counsel of Tetris Online, Inc. and as Senior Manager of the Intellectual Property Group at Nintendo of America Inc. in Redmond, Washington. Sayoko has also taught advertising law in the University of Washington IP LLM program. Sayoko holds a B.S. in Physics from the College of William and Mary, an M.S. in Physics from the University of Maryland, and a J.D. from Yale Law School.